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US Economic Confidence at Lowest Point Since Nov

Confidence in the US economy is at its lowest point in five months, Gallup reports. The polling firm’s US Economic Confidence Index was +4 for the week ending April 16, down two points from a week earlier.

It’s also fallen 12 points from early March when Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 21,000 for the first time. Since then, the benchmark stock index has fallen 2.7%, Reuters reported.

Gallup’s indicator is back to where it was shortly after President Trump was elected. Some 33% of respondents assessed the economy as good, while 22% rated it as poor. But 48% of respondents said the economy was getting worse, while 45% said it was getting better.

“Americans’ assessments of the current state of the economy appear to have had a strong connection to the trajectory of the Dow Jones industrial average in recent months,” wrote Gallup analyst Justin McCarthy.

“Positive perceptions of the economy’s current health peaked in early March after the stock market made strong gains in January and February, but have since retreated some as the market slipped. Americans’ outlook for the economy’s future continues to struggle,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans relentlessly run their mouths about their ability to “get the economy going again”. But they have yet to produce or enact any ideas that would generate results.

International Monetary Fund projections for US growth in 2017 released Tuesday show the economy will likely continue the moderate growth rate that’s characterized the US since emerging from the Great Recession. While the news isn’t horrible, it’s not enough to reach the growth Trump promised.